Hatboro-Horsham school district will continue to receive impact aid

Thursday

Jul 26, 2012 at 12:01 AMJul 26, 2012 at 5:45 AM

The Hatboro-Horsham School District will continue to receive about $650,000 in federal impact aid for the upcoming school year.

The funding, which the school district receives to make up for the absence of tax revenue from the land comprising the Willow Grove Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base, has been an integral part of the school budget since 1992.

There were doubts earlier this year whether the aid would continue now that the base is closed. Community officials are still in the process of determining plans for the use of the land. This process could take years, but until it is confirmed, the land sits dormant and cannot generate revenue for the school district.

Montgomery County U.S. Rep. Allyson Schwartz sent letters to the Appropriations Committee, the Secretary of Education and the Secretary of Defense, supporting impact aid and emphasizing its importance to the school district.

“As a senior member of the House Budget Committee, I take very seriously the need to cut spending and reduce our nation’s deficit,’’ said Schwartz in a press release. “However, we must also protect strategic investments in education to ensure that America remains competitive in the 21st century global economy.”

“We have a responsibility to provide every student with a high-quality education and to support our nation’s military families. That is why I worked to ensure this critical funding remained for the Hatboro-Horsham School District,” she said.

Bob Reichert, the business director for the school district, explained the impact the continued funding will have on the upcoming school year.

“It’s a very important component for balancing the budget every year. If we didn’t receive that funding we would have to reduce our budget or come up with offsets,” Reichert said.

The district’s upcoming school year budget anticipated receipt of continued impact aid.

“We did our projected totals for the year taking into consideration that there may be possible cuts to program funding, which may happen across the board for all programs,” Reichert said.

Now that the school district will in fact receive the money, Reichert explained plans for the future.

“Not any particular program is tied directly to impact aid funding. That’s the beauty about impact aid; there’s no requirements for funds to be spent on one particular program, it can help offset all the programs that we feel are important,” Reichert said.

Kimberly Flanders: 215-345-3119; kflanders@phillyburbs.com,

Twitter: @kimmyflanders

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